If you're cynical, or you work at HBO, that may call to mind a line from the opener of Westworld (Sunday, 9 ET/PT, *** 1/2 out of four): “It better be, for what we’re paying.” HBO needs a big hit to join — and eventually replace — Game of Thrones, and it’s invested a lot of time and money in this loose adaptation of the 1973 Michael Crichton film to get one.

You may, however, need more than one hour to reach that conclusion. Like most premium-cable dramas, which don’t face the fast-out-of-the-gate ratings pressure that broadcast series do, Westworld takes time creating its universe. Visitors to this futuristic Old West theme park are given no guidebook upon their arrival and offered no way to tell the human “guests” from the robot “hosts” — and neither are we.

How the robots are made in the fantasy theme park of HBO's 'Westworld'(Photo: John P. Johnson, HBO)

The basics, however, in this twist on Jurassic Park are fairly clear. Founded by the obviously brilliant and seemingly paternalistic Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), Westworld immerses its guests in an Old West populated by stunningly realistic robots. They exist to help the guests live out their deepest fantasies, which generally don’t go much deeper than sex with — and violence against — their hosts.

Like most every Western, there’s the sweet farm girl (Evan Rachel Wood), the tart-tongued madam (Thandie Newton), and the enigmatic Man in Black (Ed Harris). And as in all such man-has-meddled-with-nature stories, there’s the backstage battle between those who are pushing the park as a money-making venture (like Sidse Babett Knudsen’s Theresa Cullen, a quality assurance chief), and those worried that something has gone slightly askew, best represented by programmer Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) and Elsie Hughes (Shannon Woodward), a behavior engineer.

What’s harder to spot at first is why we should care. In this version, co-creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have shifted the focus to the robots, mechanical constructs at the center of a chilly opening episode that seems determined to keep viewers at a distance.

Just wait. In the second episode, you get the introduction of a human character (Jimmi Simpson) who offers another entry point into the story. And at the very end of this first hour, you get a fast, almost throwaway moment that clues you in to where the story may be heading — and is incentive all on its own to keep watching.

The reward, beyond the visual splendors you’ve come to expect from big-budget HBO productions, is a set of characters who grow ever more complex. There are heroes and villains, but they’re harder to spot than you might initially expect.

Two warnings. The violence, while not at Game of Thrones levels, is more graphic than some might like, even considering it's mostly robot blood we’re seeing. And while the female characters come into their own later, the opener makes too casual a use of violence against them.

As for the cast, well, put Hopkins, Wright and Harris in one place and you’re bound to get a master class in great acting. Still, the performance most likely to haunt your dreams is Wood's; her very features seem to shift as she transitions from a robot pretending to be human to a machine explaining its functions, to — something else.